Early last year, Senator Mitt Romney proposed a new approach to family policy that exposed some significant rifts among right-leaning policy wonks who care about fighting poverty and supporting family formation. This week, Romney (together with fellow Republicans Richard Burr and Steve Daines) has offered a revised version of the idea that might just have what it takes to patch up those differences and attract a broad coalition of backers.
The original proposal was, roughly speaking, to replace a variety of overlapping family supports with a simple, monthly cash benefit to parents, amounting to $4,200 a year per child beginning in pregnancy until age five, and then $3,000 a year per child from ages six to 17. This benefit was intended to replace the existing Child Tax Credit as well as the Child and Dependent Care Credit, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and the head-of-household tax filing status. It would also have reformed the Earned Income Tax Credit to eliminate marriage penalties and slow benefit cliffs. And its net cost, after replacing those existing benefits, would have been paid for by eliminating the state and local tax deduction.
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